I Had A Dream

Lionpaw lay complacently in the apprentices' den, fluffy ginger fur keeping him warm in his nest. The glow of the waxing moon came in along with a chill breeze- enough light to make out the sleeping forms of the other apprentices. From Silverpaw, the oldest, older than him, to the newer ones like Fallenpaw, barely more than a kit. His time as an apprentice was almost out- his six moons to make life connections with the others. They might serve him well in the future- like Sandypaw, the deputy's daughter, or Thistlepaw, his apprentice. And not only did he need their trust- he needed their respect. He needed them to know how special he was. One day he would receive a prophecy from StarClan- he was their chosen disciple. But when would they finally send him their approval? The sooner the better, StarClan!

Then he had an idea. He didn't need to wait for their sign.... With his thoughts guided by his ancestors, he could make one right now! A prophecy from StarClan was often unclear, anyways, and what better medium for an unclear message then a dream? So the cunning apprentice lay in his bed for a few more moments and then sprang up, panting and sweaty, looking like he had just had a horrible nightmare. "No! Please!" he yowled, as if still caught up in the dream's afterimage, and then caught off abruptly, noticing some of the silhouetted apprentices stirring. He kept on his mask of terror and confusion, keeping back a wry smile. Perfect.

OOC: Okay, so this is how it'll go. I'll need 2-3 apprentices to talk with him and be concerned, eventually insisting on him going to the deputy or medicine cat(s). THEY WILL NOT KNOW HE IS LYING, NOR WILL ANYONE ELSE. However this part goes dictate the plot's later stages: either they tell the medicine cat, who essentially thinks they may have had similar thoughts and tells the leader, who believes them; or they go to seethe deputy, who chooses whether to believe them or not and whether to tell the leader. First come, first served. Have at it!

Sandypaw jolted awake at the panicked sound of Lionpaws voice. She rose to her paws, blinking sleep away, and padded over to the tom. "Hey.. Hey, you're alright."She meowed soothingly. Sandypaw figured he must have had a nightmare since there didn't seem to be anything that posed a threat around that she could tell. "Did you have a bad dream?" She asked, her eyes shining with sympathy. She hadn't really talked to the Lionpaw before, but he was her clanmate. She wanted to help calm him down, and maybe go back to sleep, if she could.

Lionpaw took a deep, shaking breath and nodded at Sandypaw, thinking quick. "I... I had a dream that we were sitting in camp, and then these t-terrible, dark cats who smelled of crowfood came charging in, yelling something about prey, and they attacked. It was h-horrible. They killed so... so many of us, including the d-deputy. WindClan was a mess of b-b-blood and, and pain, everyone wailing names of their loved ones. Then the biggest, darkest cat of all killed the l-leader, and blood sp-sprayed everywhere, and... that's when I woke up." His eyes gazed at hers. She was rather pretty, he thought. "S-Sandypaw, isn't it?" Oh yeah- they had had their apprentice ceremony together.

Sandypaw listened as he explained to her what happened in his dream and her eyes widened in horror and a small gasp escaped her lips when he mentioned her father and Ashstar being killed. She stayed silent for a moment to shocked to speak before nodding her head to his question. "Yeah, its Sandypaw." She answered quietly as she thought about what to do about his dream. She knew his dream couldn't possibly be an omen or something, right? But what if it was and her dad and Ashstar died and she could have stopped it. She shook her head, clearing the image of her father dead in the middle of camp from her mind. "Maybe we should tell my dad." She offered, her blue-green eyes clouded with worry. She wasn't really sure what to do, but she just knew she needed to tell Smokepelt. She needed him to tell her that it wasn't true and that he would be fine and so would everyone else.

Thistlepaw had been listening in nearby, he had pretty much been pretending to sleep... Finally, after hearing about the tom-cats nightmare-like dream, he decided to get up and comfort him best he could. The apprentice rolled over, getting to his paws and quietly padded over to Lionpaw and Sandypaw.

"Hey? I heard you had a... Rather violent dream?" He started, making sure he heard correctly what the other cat had said. He glanced at Sandypaw, who had come to Lionpaw's aid first. If what she said was true, about a weird omen about the leader and his father dying... He shivered, the thoughts hurting slightly. I hope it's not an omen, it would be strange for an apprentice to receive one anyway. Thistlepaw shook the thoughts from his mind, not really wanting to think of anything tragic at such an hour. He flicked an ear as he turned to face Lionpaw again.

Lionpaw nodded at Thistlepaw, then shook out his fur in apparent apprehension when Sandypaw mentioned talking to the deputy. "I-I dunno... I wouldn't feel very comfortable. He's the deputy, for StarClan's sakes! But you're his daughter, aren't you, Sandypaw?" The apprentice gazed at his companion. "I mean, it could be just a dream- but, it felt so real..." The ginger apprentice swished his tail, seeming to decide. It wouldn't do to appear too indecisive. "Okay. On the off chance that StarClan has decided to speak to me, we should probably tell Smokepelt. J-just to be safe."

Flamepaw wanted to just curl back up and go back to sleep after hearing Lionpaw's outburst, but after Sandypaw and Thistlepaw began to speak with him, he gave up on any other possible sleep he could've gotten. He made his way over the other apprentices that had decided to head back to sleep, and then blinked his eyes groggily, trying to chase the sleep away from his green gaze.
"What's this about dreams...violent dreams from StarClan?" Flamepaw asked, pausing to try and hold back a yawn that he knew was coming.

Thistlepaw nodded, "and I'm his son, and apprentice, you should feel fine." He encouraged the gingery tom, hoping he could get some comfort from an older cat. "C'mon, let's go see him, if your dream felt that real, it has to mean something. And maybe you can get some herbs too, you know, the ones that calm you down?" He didn't know hardly anything about herbs, so of course he wouldn't know the name.

"That is of course, if you really need them." Thistlepaw quickly addded.

Sandypaw glanced at her brother and Flamepaw as they joined them before nodding to Lionpaw, "Don't worry, he'll probably be glad you let him know." She meowed, voice showing a hint of relief that he agreed that they should tell Smokepelt. "I'm sure he's probably still asleep in the warrior's den." She meowed before she quietly made her way out of the apprentice's den and towards the warrior's den, cream patched tail flicking somewhat anxiously, though she tried to hide it.

When she made it to the warriors den she glanced behind her at the other apprentices before entering. She carefully and quietly stepped around the sleeping bodies of warriors until she got to her father. "Dad.. Wake up." She meowed in a loud whisper, white paw prodding him awake.

Lionpaw followed Sandypaw, ginger tail-tip flicking, paws walking stealthily. The last thing he needed was for Spiderfur or some other warrior to wake up and ruin his plans. He sat by quietly as the cream patched she-cat woke up her father, hiding a small grin.

With everything going on, sleeping soundly was the best thing that had happened to the tom in what felt like ages. His father was gone, his mother was in a somewhat depressed state, and with five kits and a clan to care for, all of the deputy's was gone. Before it got dark, he'd managed to go on an evening hunt and catch what ever prey was close, hoping cats didn't think he was slacking, even though there was a good reason for it. For who knows how long, Smokepelt slept without a worry in the world. And so far, the night was perfect. He had no dreams, nothing to wake him up at night, well, except the paw the prodded at his shoulder.

At first, he thought it was a dream, but the more he woke up he realized it wasn't. "Huh? Wha-" he mumbled softly, letting out a yawn and looking at Sandypaw with half opened eyes. Had he forgotten to take her on a patrol? Looking up at the sky ('cause WC warriors don't sleep in an actual covered den), he let out a sigh seeing that it was dark. What in StarClan's name did his daughter want in the middle of the night?

Hearing some shuffling outside the sleeping area, the grey tom noticed a few other apprentices standing around, including one of his adopted sons, Thistlepaw. As tired as he was, he was also curious as to what the group of youngs cats had to say, and he didn't really have a choice.

Getting up, the deputy flicked his tail towards the edge of the sleeping area and carefully started making his way to it in hopes of not waking any other cat up. Finally reaching the group of apprentices, he walked a little ways from them and sat down, not wanting to be to close to the rest of the sleeping clan. I wish I was sleeping with them, Smokepelt thought to himself, glancing one last time to the quiet bundles of fur and then back to the apprentices. "What ever you need better be important since you took the time to wake me up at this hour," Smokepelt meowed in his usual quiet tone with a hint of sternness as he looked from Sandypaw to each of the other apprentices. The tom dug his claws into the earth and gave a small shiver from the chilly night breeze as he waited for an answer.

Thistlepaw glanced at Lionpaw, then to Sandypaw before looking up at his father. "Well, I'm not exactly sure... Lionpaw said he had a dream, and he kept saying how real it felt." In a more hushed voice, he continued to explain. "He told us that in the dream, you and Ashstar had died." The apprentice trembled, again, not wanting to think of such horrid things.

"Anyway, he woke us up, yowling as loud as any cat can. After he told us everything, we all decided that it was an omen." Thistlepaw finished, taking a breath in. He still doubted an apprentice could receive an omen, but by the sound of it Lionpaw couldn't be lying.

Lionpaw grimaced at Thistlepaw's summary. It sounded so... so kit-like. Well, the tom was younger than him, after all. "Well, in the nightmare I had, we were a-attacked by shadowy cats. They killed about half of us, which included y-you and Ashstar. The dream was so real that it... Well, it w-worried me. I don't know if it was an omen or not, but I've heard that StarClan sometimes sends m-m-messages through dreams, and that was... That was the m-most real dream I've ever had. I could... I could smell the blood, S-Smokepelt. I didn't want to bother you, b-but it seemed k-kinda important." He flexed his claws unsurely.

Turning his gaze towards Thistlepaw, the deputy tilted his head in curiosity. Him and his mother had died? Besides, why would it mean anything, it was only a dream, right? Smokepelt contemplated Lionpaw's dream to be a prophecy, and even though it was extremely rare and unheard of for StarClan to give Apprentice's prophecies, maybe this young cat was different? The tom was brought back from his scrambled and tired thoughts as Thistlepaw finished and Lionpaw started to tell his side of the story. The smaller cat seemed pretty shaken by the dream, and although he wondered why they came to him instead of Ashstar, he didn't ask questions.

Making sure he didn't miss any details, Smokepelt had to think fast about how he was going to respond, since he wasn't very good at thinking on the fly. When Lionpaw finished, he looked from each of the apprentices and his gaze landed once more on the apprentice to seemed to have had the so called "prophecy." "So, do you think that this is some sort of omen that has to do with just WindClan? It seems as though it felt pretty real, but in the end, it could mean anything," The grey tom meowed in a genuinely worried tone, although he was a bit skeptical towards Lionpaw's story, but then again, he was always skeptical towards stuff like this, so it was probably nothing.

Lionpaw took a breath. Smokepelt seemed pretty open to his idea, surprisingly enough. "W-well, I was thinking about the dream on the way here, and I thought that the sh-shadowy cats might represent ShadowClan. I mean, they've a-attacked WindClan warriors before, right?" The apprentice figured that would hit a nerve, as the deputy's father and friend had been mauled by a ShadowClan patrol and then later died of the injuries, and they had also killed Kestrelstorm, who had technically been exiled, but was formerly WindClan. "And that it might be w-warning us that ShadowClan would a-attack if we weren't c-careful, and... and kill some of us. Maybe not directly, but through battle wounds perhaps?"